1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to scheduling patron reservations in facilities offering numerous attractions, and more particularly, to systems, methods, and apparatuses for assigning and managing reservations using wireless personal communication devices.
2. Background of Invention
One of the most difficult problems to solve in the design and operation of amusement parks is managing the queuing of patrons for rides and other attractions. Conventionally, each attraction has one physical line, or queue, in which patrons wait. Lines for very popular attractions can last many hours, during which the customer merely shuffles along until finally admitted to the attraction. Since a patron can only be in one line at a time, a great deal of time may be lost merely standing in line for attractions. Such conventional approaches inherently misallocate patrons to attractions; while standing in line for one attraction, there may be little or no line for another attraction that the patron is interested in attending. Yet, the patron cannot be in both lines at once, and so the patron unfortunately waits in the one line for the first attraction, and then, perhaps much later goes to the second attraction, only to find that it now has a significant line.
To ease this situation, amusement parks go to great lengths to design distractions where the line forms, often snaking the line through various structures to conceal the true length of the line, or providing various amusements to the patrons in line. Obviously, this approach does not solve the misallocation problem. Fundamentally, the more time patrons spend standing in line, the less time they have to ride or see other attractions, and the less time they have to purchase concessions. Furthermore, patrons find it frustrating to spend an overwhelming proportion of their day standing in lines rather than enjoying the attractions. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the time patrons stand in line for attractions, rides, amusements, and other services.
The misallocation problem results in part from two constraints. The first constraint is the inability of patrons to queue in more than one line at a time. The second constraint is a lack of communication: first, an inability of patrons to communicate their intention to attend particular attractions, and in effect, request a reservation for an attraction; and second, an inability to inform patrons remotely when their reservation is available for the attraction.
Systems for scheduling and queuing patrons or customers are known. Conventionally, many of these systems attempt to allocate patrons to typically one, though sometimes several, services or service providers. In many conventional systems, there is some central management of the queuing and scheduling process. For example, well-known service systems, such as used in delicatessens, banks, or the like, employ a ticketing device that provides customers with numbered tickets, effectively creating a single queue, and then servers serve the next person in the queue. Variations of these systems use a main queue and direct customers from the main queue to individual queues for individual services, which may be priority queues. Systems such as these are impractical when applied to amusement parks, given the large number of attractions, the vast number of patrons, and the geographic dispersion of the park. Hence the use of simple queues at each attraction has been the long-standing model of amusement park design.
Conventional systems now even include pagers to page customers as to when a service or service provider is available. In these pager-based systems, the pager is merely used as a notification device, and provides no utility to allow the customer to reserve or schedule service. Rather, the pagers are used merely to notify the patron that a server is available. The patron still signs up for service in conventional-manner, such as through a receptionist, and then is provided a pager. These systems are thus inapplicable to the amusement park model because they do not allow patrons to signal or reserve an attraction ahead of time, or to obtain information about waiting times for attractions. Further, unlike amusement parks where the patron intends to visit numerous attractions and amusements over an entire day, conventional pager-based systems are designed for a single service per patron. Once the service is provided, the patron returns the pager and leaves the premises.
Another problem with conventional systems is that the patron views the time spent in line as an investment. If an attraction malfunctions, or if some other factor necessitates a delay or cancellation of the patron""s place in line, the patron typically feels extremely disappointed and frustrated at having wasted a significant amount of time in line. Therefore, it is advantageous to be able to inform patrons remotely when there is a problem with an attraction, perhaps even before a reservation is made for the attraction.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems, methods, and apparatuses that allows patrons to obtain information about waiting times for various attractions, amusements, or services throughout an amusement park or other service area, make reservations for certain ones of these, be alerted when a desired attraction becomes available, and be updated when changes are made to reservations. Furthermore, it is desirable to allow a patron to effectively xe2x80x9cwaitxe2x80x9d in line while engaging in other activities in the parkxe2x80x94such as purchasing concessions or attending other attractionsxe2x80x94so that the time spent waiting is otherwise productive, thus reducing the feeling of having wasted time when delays or malfunctions occur.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system that allows patrons in an amusement park or other facility to schedule reservations in queues for attractions and other services. In one embodiment of the system, there is provided a plurality of hand-held, wireless personal communication devices (PCDs), and a plurality of attraction computers, each associated with one of the attractions. The attraction computers and the PCDs communicate with one another over a wireless network to manage the scheduling of reservations. A central attraction control interface permits amusement park staff to monitor and modify the reservation information for the various attractions.
A group of patrons, such as a family, entering the park is given one or more PCDs. Each PCD includes a screen display for displaying text and graphic information as well as an input device for receiving input from the patron using the device. Each PCD stores information identifying the number of individuals in the patron""s group, as well as relevant characteristics of the individuals, such as age and height, for example. These factors are typically entered by the patron when he or she first receives the device; the factors may be relevant in determining whether reservation requests for particular attractions are valid, given particular physical restrictions of various attractions.
The PCDs communicate with the attraction computers through a wireless communication network; accordingly the PCDs and attraction computers each include both transmitter and receiver components for bi-directional communication of data. In one embodiment, the system also includes a plurality of communication receivers and transmitters located throughout the amusement park for facilitating communication between the PCDs and the attraction computers.
A PCD receives user input from the patron requesting a reservation for a particular attraction. The reservation is filtered by the PCD to determine its validity. If the request is valid, it is transmitted to the corresponding attraction computer via the wireless network. The attraction computer processes the incoming reservation request to determine whether and when the reservation can be accommodated. A proposed reservation time is provisionally stored in a virtual queue and transmitted back to the PCD for confirmation or rejection by the patron. If the patron elects to confirm the proposed reservation time, the PCD transmits a confirmation message to the attraction computer which confirms the reservation in the virtual queue. If the patron rejects the reservation or does not confirm it within a predetermined time period, the reservation is removed from the virtual queue and the proposed reservation time is released so that it may be made available to other patrons.
Updates to reservation times may be required due to problems with attractions or other unforeseen circumstances. If necessary, the attraction computer may transmit an alert message to the PCD to inform the patron of a change to his or her reservation time. The patron may then be given the opportunity to accept the new reservation time, reschedule, or cancel the reservation. In addition, patrons may initiate changes or cancellations to reservations which result in further updates to the queues stored at attraction computers.
When a reserved time is approaching, the PCD in one embodiment alerts the patron to remind him or her to proceed to the attraction. This alert may take the form of an audible message or beep, a visual indication on the screen, or a vibration as is conventionally used in pager systems. Some combination of these techniques may also be used. The patron has the opportunity to cancel the reservation at any time if desired. If the reservation is not canceled, the patron proceeds to the attraction, where a sensor detects the patron""s entry, and updates the stored virtual queue accordingly. The continual monitoring of patrons: arriving at the attraction, and updating of the virtual queue enables the attraction computer to dynamically determine future reservation times for other patrons. The attraction computer maintains data on the numbers of patrons, reservations times, cancellations and the like, to provide reports to the staff.
The present invention is designed to operate in conjunction with conventional physical queues as well. Thus, in one embodiment, for a particular attraction, there is typically a physical queue (line) in addition to the stored virtual queue in the attraction computer. Persons in the physical queue are admitted on a regular basis, and in confluence with those patrons arriving at the attraction who previously made an electronic reservation. The scheduling of advance reservations takes into account the presence of patrons in the physical queue, so that a certain number of such patrons may be admitted between admissions of patrons from the virtual queue. The management of the virtual queue can therefore be adjusted as desired to balance admissions by patrons in the physical queue with respect to admissions by patrons in the virtual queue.